Public feud between city, county escalates over Anna Maria Island hurricane evacuation
A Holmes Beach official has fired back at County Administrator Scott Hopes over his accusation that Anna Maria Island residents didn’t want to evacuate from Hurricane Ian.
As the storm approached, Hopes said during a press conference that Holmes Beach Police Chief William Tokajer urged Manatee County Government not to shut off the water lines because residents would remain on the island.
In a social media post this week, Tokajer said there’s more to the story.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Tokajer wrote on Facebook. “The county administrator is the one person the island residents, county residents and municipal leaders should be able to look towards for the facts. Especially during a storm event.”
Instead, Tokajer clarified that he asked Hopes to delay the water shut-off for the first responders on Anna Maria Island who had not evacuated yet. Police, firefighters and other emergency rescue agencies planned to evacuate but not until the winds became too strong to remain on Anna Maria Island, he said.
During a press conference ahead of the storm, the Bradenton Herald asked Hopes whether he had an indication that residents were refusing to comply with the mandatory evacuation order.
“Well, when I have the police chief from one of the largest cities on the island call me on my way here to this briefing to ask that we do not turn the water off so his residents can stay on the island, that’s a pretty good indicator that there’s a problem,” Hopes responded.
But Anna Maria Island residents took the storm seriously, the Holmes Beach Police Department wrote in its Facebook post. Tokajer said island leaders “could not be prouder of our residents, business and property owners” for boarding up, sandbagging and evacuating.
Protecting the water system
Hopes explained that the county was forced to shut the water off in order to protect the county’s water system. He said that if the hurricane broke the line while it remained open, it could have contaminated the entire system.
In an interview with the Bradenton Herald, Hopes accused Tokajer of “spreading misinformation.” He said Tokajer’s request to leave the water system on could have caused raw sewage to back up into island residents’ homes.
The system also has to be turned off by hand, Hopes explained, which meant county staff had to visit the island and complete that task before dangerous tropical storm-force winds arrived.
“The evacuations on Anna Maria Island were appropriately called and ordered. Anyone who has any doubts only has to look 50 miles to the south to see what damage and storm surge existed,” Hopes said. “The mere fact that (Tokajer) would like us to believe that his first responders could not drink bottled water while preparing to evacuate the island at the risk of raw sewage being spread into the streets of Anna Maria Island is ridiculous. And he should be embarrassed.”
But Tokajer pushed back on Hopes’ comments, arguing that he only asked county officials to delay the shut-off until the next morning because the hurricane forecast had been updated to show the storm making landfall further south.
“We weren’t concerned about drinking water,” Tokajer said. “We were concerned about the first responders being able to flush a toilet. We would not have asked if we didn’t already see the storm had shifted to the south.”
At the time, weather forecasts expected the hurricane to make landfall near Anna Maria Island. Hopes said that trajectory made it crucial for everyone to evacuate the area and that the county had allowed the water to stay on for the maximum time possible.
“We’re talking about a wall of water that is going to slam up against your property. We’re not talking about a gradual thing and seas rising,” Hopes said at the Sept. 27 press conference. “We’re talking about momentum and mass hitting a structure. You don’t want to be in it.”
Holmes Beach vs. Manatee County continues
The exchange is the latest in an ongoing feud between Holmes Beach and Manatee County Government officials, who have sparred publicly for the past two years.
The disagreement between the two government bodies began in 2020 when Holmes Beach removed parking spaces and county officials argued that the decision prevented visitors from accessing the island.
Holmes Beach has maintained that the county should find a different solution to park more visitors on the island but has also moved to ban a parking garage from being built within city limits.
Despite several meetings aimed at resolving tensions, it’s unclear when the relationship between Manatee County Government and the city of Holmes Beach will improve.
This story was originally published October 7, 2022 at 2:57 PM.
